Dear Old Friends
by Anna-Sky Valentine Nox
Summary: Leon, Yuffie, Cid, Aerith, Tifa, and Cloud all lost many of their close friends during the heartless conflict. As a final goodbye and a way to say they're are moving on, they each write a letter to those friends. Read inside for full summary


Ok first off. Disclaimer yayy! I don't own FFVIII, FFVII, or Kingdom Hearts.

So the idea kinda came out of nowhere but basically these are all letters the characters are writing to their old friends like I said before. It disregards the KH backstory and assumes the characters came from their original game worlds. Sorry about this chapter... I've not actually played FFVIII and haven't really done a ton of research on it but bear with me. This is more focused on KH anyway. *Runs from flying tomatoes* OH and there are pairings. Definitely Squffie. There's past SquallxRinoa. Past Yuffentinte. Past ZackxAerith. And maybe CloTi but I'm not sure yet. But anyway hope you enjoy!

Dear Rinoa, Selphie, Zell, Irvine, and Quistis,

Well, first of all let me say I miss you all, so very much. You're probably wondering why I'm writing you a letter and sending it off in a bottle. I remember a time when you did that Selphie, and I told you that was stupid. Well, here's the story.

One day after training with Yuffie, (I'll tell you all about her later) I found her scribbling a letter. I asked her who it was for and she said, "All my friends who didn't make it through the whole heartless ordeal. I wanted to let them know how everyone's doing, that I love them and miss them. That I'm living for them and I've moved on for them." I watched curiously as she scraled her signature the rolled the letter up and stuck in a bottle, throwing it out for the ocean to swallow up. Just like I did with you Selphie, I told her it was stupid to send messages in a bottle.

"Nuh-uh!" She exclaimed. "If they're all dead, I wouldn't know where to send it anyway, but this way if they're still alive, there's a chance someone could find it and it could to get to them somehow." And she grinned her thousand-watt smile at me. I decided it wasn't such a stupid idea after all. So here I am.

After the heartless took our world away, I was completely devastated. Losing my world, my friends, the love of my life was too much for me. I trained non-stop so I couldn't let anything like that ever happen again. I wasn't going to be the weak little boy I was at the time. Soon I met Aerith, Cid and Yuffie, and we all became a team. They all came from the same world so I felt like an outcast at first, but they welcomed me, Aerith especially, as if I was one of their long lost friends.

Aerith is the caring motherly type. She is the healer and she's always looking out for us. She's sweet and somehow she always knows what's up. It's kind of unnerving but it's also comforting. You'd all adore her.

Then there's Yuffie, the spitfire ball of endless energy, ninja extraordinaire. She's extraordinary all right. Zell, Rinoa, Selphie, you'd love her right off the bat. Always smiling, joking, having fun; our hyperactive ninja. To me at first, she was just an annoying brat that I got stuck with as a fighting partner. But damn, she grew on me.

Then, of course there's Cid, the mechanic and adoptive father-like figure. He's always cussing our ears off but he's a great guy and he really cares about us.

I changed my name to Leon because I couldn't stand that I hadn't been able to stop what had happened. Stupid right? Don't worry, Yuffie's made that very clear already. She almost never called me Leon; it was always Squall. The more I told her to call me Leon, the more she called me Squall. It was one of the many things I hated about her. But I learned to be grateful because her calling me Squall was her way of saying "I believe in you Squall; I'm not going to give up on you. Changing your name doesn't change who you are. 'Sides, I don't want you to change who you are silly," as she so informed me once.

Anyways, in Traverse Town, same thing happened nearly every day. Aerith made food. Yuffie and I trained. Aerith made more food. Yuffie followed me around and generally annoyed the crap outta me. Aerith made more food and we went to bed. I wanted to kill myself. And Yuffie. I couldn't fathom how she could be so happy all the time. I was a little intimidated by it now that I look back on it. It was scary how immature she was. Or so I thought. I wanted to wring her neck and scream at her. Didn't she understand how horrible and messed up things were? Finally, one day I broke down, and I did just that (minus the neck wringing, I wasn't _that_ cruel.) I told her to grow up and face reality to put it simply.

I will never forget that day. We were in our room (yes we shared a room, oh the horror) and it was raining cats and dogs outside. After I was finished yelling there was a very, very pregnant pause. The silence was bone crushing. And then she laughed. But this was no "haha you're funny Squall" laugh. No, this was a laugh as bitter as my black coffee in the mornings. And _that _is really bitter.

"You know what _Leon_," the emphasis on the Leon and the venom dripping from her words made me flinch. It stung. "You don't tell me to grow up. You're the one who's living in the past, who refuses to move on. The one who won't let go, so why don't _you _grow up? You're not the only one who went trough this shit Leon. I lost my home too. I lost the people I love too. So quit acting like you're the only one who's got it bad you selfish ass. But you know what? For the sake of my friends who sacrificed their lives to try to save my planet, I decided to live. I don't think they'd appreciate it if I got the chance to live, and they didn't, and I refused to seize that opportunity and make the best of it. So I'm doing just that, I'm living life to the fullest. I'm trying to make life fun and for Leviathan's sake I'm trying to be happy damnit! If you want to be an asshole and dishonor your friends by throwing away this chance at life that you got and they didn't, fine! But don't ruin it for me. Look Squall, it's okay to mourn, we're all sad about this. But sitting around and moping, sulking like a freakin' baby isn't going to make things better. So don't talk to me about growing up Leonheart!" And with that she ran out crying.

I was stunned. Boy did I feel small. Every little thing she said was right, and I felt pathetic. I couldn't believe I hadn't seen any of this before. I'd thought she was an immature brat that didn't understand anything, but she was more grown up than I was. Numbly, I forced myself out to look for her and found her sitting on a rooftop gazing at the sky. Thankfully it had stopped raining; I didn't want her to get sick. I took a deep breath and climbed up to sit beside her. After some peaceful silence while just staring up at the glittering stars, I awkwardly wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gave them a light squeeze. "You know," I drawled, "surprisingly for once, you're actually right." I looked down at my feet and whispered, "I'm sorry." Our eyes met and it pained me to see all the hurt those stormy gray orbs were hiding. Then the twinkle returned to her eyes again and I felt a light punch on my shoulder. She beamed up at me. I can still remember how overwhelmingly relieved I was to see that smile again. She hopped up and did her signature victory punch in the air before shouting, "Pshhhh I'm always right Squally. And you better be sorry doofus." I rolled my eyes, and for the first time since the heartless, I smiled.

After that I started learning to embrace life again. It was a slow process, and took a lot of time with my new family, but it happened. Training with Yuffie was more like fun, less like work. Since the incident that night, I saw her in a completely new light and considered her a friend. I respected and admired that energy. Instead of being angry at her childish antics, I often found myself chuckling or smirking. I learned to smile and laugh more. Especially after Sora came, the keyblade wielder, savior of the universe, etc. He was the one destined to save us from the heartless. But that's a different story. Let's just say he did what he was supposed to and also became a good friend of ours. He's an extraordinary kid.

After Sora saved the worlds the first time, we moved to Hollow Bastion, formerly known as Radiant Garden. We created the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. We would fight the heartless and try to restore Hollow Bastion to Radiant Garden. Most of the days consisted of Yuffie and I training, then going straight to work. She stuck around me a lot and to tell you the truth, it didn't bother me at all. Her endless chatter filled the emptiness; it was good to have her company. Every once and a while, the two of us would go participate in the tournaments at the Olympus Coliseum.

Soon another crisis came along and Sora had to save the worlds once again. And during this time, two of the girl's and Cid's closest friends found their way to Hollow Bastion. Cloud and Tifa. Yuffie and I would always laugh about how Aerith and Tifa were always chasing after Cloud and he would hide from them, trying to be alone. He was a lot like I was before. Brooding about his past and never smiling. But Yuffie, Aerith and Tifa changed that little by little and got him smiling again. Cloud's all right. He's a great fighter, and he's a little awkward and weird, but he's a good guy. And Tifa's just like Aerith with a little more bite. If you get on her bad side, she'll kick your ass, but other than that she's very kind and caring. We've all grown really close over the years and now we're just like a family, albeit a dysfunctional one.

After Radiant Garden was restored and the heartless were gone for good, things settled down immensely. Now, I spar with everyone (though mostly Yuffie as she playfully yells at others for 'stealing her Squally away') to keep up my skills in case the need for them should ever arise again. Yuffie drags me every where and babbles on about anything and everything. And I laugh and we play/joke around. Yuffie comes up with the strangest things to do and we do them. Every once and a while when things get dull, Yuffie drags me onto a gummi ship and we travel to different worlds; meet new people. I'm finally happy and I'm having a lot of fun.

Anyway, I have to wrap this up. Yuffie's coming and she has big news. I think she might be expecting. After being together for so long we realized that there we definitely thought of each other as more than just friends. Yuffie attacked me with a kiss one day and everything just sort of fell into place after that. I felt like I might be betraying you Rinoa, but I know you would have wanted me to move on. Don't worry, you'll always be special in my heart and I'll always love you. But I love Yuffie too, in a completely different way. I hope you'll give me your blessing.

This letter I guess, is my way of saying goodbye properly. I wanted you all to know how much you mean to me, and I wanted to thank you for everything you've given me and taught me. I've moved on and I'm living for you now. I miss you all and I'll always love you, my memories with you are sacred and forever in my heart. Ugh, I'm not good at this mushy stuff so sorry if it all sounds weird. Although I did get Aerith to help me out a little with what to say. If any of you are out there somewhere, and you find this, you better (and I quote this from Yuffie) get your sorry ass over to Radiant Garden. And if you're not, well you're here with me in my heart and I hope you give me your blessings.

Love

Squall Leonheart

P.S. I _am _pregnant. Isn't that crazy? Your Squally's gonna be a daddy! Scary thought huh? Nah he'll be wonderful :). He told me all about you guys. I wish I could have had the chance to meet you. I'm still hoping everyone is still alive out there somewhere, but who knows? Anyway, I promise to take good care of him!

-With love,

Yuffie Kisaragi


End file.
